DCentric

Good Morning, DCentric readers! While you were watching the Real Housewives of DC– oh, wait…that was totally us. Don’t worry, though! We have delicious links for you:

Adrian Fenty, Not Michelle Rhee, Caused Fenty’s Loss “What went wrong with education reform in D.C. was Adrian Fenty….Fenty simply couldn’t be bothered to try to sell Rhee’s school program to the people who mattered most in assessing it—District voters…you’ve got to tell voters what you’re up to, and explain why they should trust you to carry it out. And if your schools chancellor is going out of her way to start fights all over the city, you’ve got to spend that much more energy running around trying to get people to buy into it.” (Washington City Paper)

D.C. school chief Rhee’s next move probably toward the door “Gray chafed at the Fenty-Rhee operating style, which he said lacked transparency and a commitment to public participation. “Frankly, we live in a city that has been oppressed,” Gray said after a 2007 list of prospective school closings appeared in The Washington Post before the council learned about it. “In this city, more than any other, how you do something is a major factor. It is a city that has been dictated to. People are very sensitive to being left out.”" (The Washington Post)

Greater Greater Washington says, “Lay off the BOEE” (I agree) “We’re accustomed to having results posted on the Web right away and continually updated as precincts come in. However, we shouldn’t be so impatient with BOEE. Their job is to get the count right, not to satisfy our thirst for results minutes after polls close. Sure, it’s fun to see who’s ahead when only 6% of precincts are reporting, but it’s also pretty useless.” (Greater Greater Washington) Continue reading →

Good morning, DCentric readers! While you were watching the Top Chef DC finale, we combed the internet and found these delicious links for you:

Courtland Milloy’s latest column (on revolting against Fenty) should come with a flame-retardant suit…yowza! “Watch them at the chic new eateries, Fenty’s hip newly arrived “creative class” firing up their “social media” networks whenever he’s under attack: Why should the mayor have to stop his work just to meet with some old biddies, they tweet. Who cares if the mayor is arrogant as long as he gets the job done? Myopic little twits.” (The Washington Post)

On why Michelle Fenty didn’t campaign for her husband… ““We made a strong distinction between our public and private lives,” Michelle Fenty told me at Fenty headquarters around noon Tuesday. “We wanted our children to live regular lives without the fact that their father was mayor interfering with their daily lives…People didn’t elect my husband to hear from me,” she said.” (Washingtonian.com)

Beware of that old-fashioned combination lock– it’s vulnerable. “Yesterday while I was grabbing a lunchtime workout at the Washington Sports Club in Dupont Circle, someone broke into my locker and took three credit cards. Over the next several hours, this person (or people) racked up nearly $4,000 worth of charges at Dupont Circle and Gallery Place shops…Washington Sports Club and MPD are on the case, but I want readers to know that using old-school Master combo locks are no longer safe.” (Prince Of Pentworth )

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We usually serve links in the morning, but after yesterday’s historic primary, we’d be remiss if we didn’t round up the best post-mortems we’ve seen. Today, all anyone can talk about is, “What happened to Adrian Fenty?” The five features below have answers. The first article, from the Washington Post, is excellent– if you can only read one, that’s my pick.

How Adrian Fenty lost his reelection bid for D.C. mayor “…the story of a mayor who misread an electorate he was sure he knew better than anyone, who ignored advisers’ early warnings that key constituencies were abandoning him, who shut out confidantes who told him what he did not want to hear and who began to listen only when the race was all but lost.” (The Washington Post)

Adrian Fenty loses D.C. mayoral primary: Why his re-election bid failed “The price that Fenty was paying for all of those recreation centers, for all of the ribbon-cuttings, for all of the education initiatives, was the most powerful block of voters in town.No one could argue that he’d neglected black neighborhoods, but in the end, that was almost the point: Black neighborhoods, in many instances, didn’t want to see the brand of change Fenty was providing. Asked about the sparkling Deanwood Recreation Center, a Ward 7 resident quoted in the Washington Examiner said, “Fenty is getting ready for white people moving into the community.”" (tbd.com)

Post-Election Analysis: It’s Not The End of The District “Finally, reform just doesn’t turn back on itself, as Fenty tried to say it would. Over the last 12 years, each mayor has left a foundation upon which his successor has built. We can all marvel at what Fenty has done in four years, but not much of it would have been possible without Mayor Anthony Williams. Gray will enter office in uncertain economic times — but also with many of the toughest decisions already made for him. Reforms gain momentum and evolve — and even if he wanted to, Gray wouldn’t simply be able to stop the city and throw it into reverse. ” (DCist) Continue reading →